1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a combination of a baby playpen and a baby bassinet, and more particularly to a baby playpen-bassinet combination in which a baby bassinet is safely and stably suspended from the top of a baby playpen by a simple and inexpensive mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types of baby playpen-bassinet combinations are currently available on the market. These baby playpen-bassinet combinations are different from one another mainly in the mechanism by which the baby bassinet is mounted onto the baby playpen. FIG. 1 shows a prior art combination of a baby playpen 30 and a baby bassinet 40. The baby playpen 30 includes an upper frame 31, a bottom frame 32, a supporting frame 33 and a fabric body 35. The upper frame 31 are provided with four corner blocks 34 at four corners thereof. The supporting frame 33 connects corresponding corners of the upper frame 31 and the bottom frame 32 by being fixed to the corner blocks 34. The fabric body 35 is supported by the upper frame 31 and the supporting frame 33 so as to surround the periphery of the playpen 30 and cover the bottom frame 32. The baby bassinet 40 is formed by stitching a fabric 41. The four corners of the bassinet 40 are cut away for mating with the corner blocks 34 of the playpen 30. A number of hooks 42 are arranged along the top edge of the bassinet 40. By hanging the hooks 42 of the bassinet 40 on the upper frame 31 of the playpen 30, the bassinet 40 can be suspended from the top edge of the playpen 30 so that the bottom of the bassinet 40 is received within the playpen 30.
With the bassinet 40 having the structure described above, since the hooks 42 have to be sufficiently strong in order to prevent from breakage during the use thereof, the hooks 42 are usually formed from plastic steel material which is relatively expensive. In addition, since the relatively rigid hooks 42 are connected with the much softer fabric 41, after the bassinet 40 is used for a certain period of time, the fabric 41 often tears in the vicinity of the hooks 42 resulting in safety problems.
A baby playpen-bassinet combination developed to overcome the above mentioned problems in the prior art has been described in the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/632,148 filed on Aug. 3, 2000, by this inventor. Nevertheless, there still exits a need for a baby playpen-bassinet combination in which a baby bassinet is even more safely and stably suspended from the top of a baby playpen by a mechanism which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a baby playpen-bassinet combination in which a baby bassinet is safely and stably mounted onto the top of a baby playpen by simple and inexpensive means.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a baby playpen-bassinet combination comprising a playpen including an upper frame, a supporting frame, a bottom frame and a fabric body, and a bassinet detachably mounted onto the upper frame of the playpen and including a main body, two suspension sleeve, two extension portions, two supporting rods, four coupling members and a bottom plate. The upper frame includes two horizontal longitudinal rods parallel to each other, two horizontal lateral rods parallel to each other and perpendicular to the two longitudinal rods and four corner blocks. Each of the four corner blocks fixedly connects one of the two longitudinal rods and one of the two lateral rods and is provided with a vertical hole and a vertically extending rib radially inwardly protruded from the wall of the vertical hole. The supporting frame is fixedly connected to the four corner blocks of the upper frame. The bottom frame is fixedly connected to the supporting frame. The fabric body wraps around the two longitudinal rods, the two lateral rods and the supporting frame so as to form a peripheral surface of the playpen and covers the bottom frame. The peripheral surface includes two lateral outer fabric sides extending downwards from the two lateral rods, respectively, and provided with first connecting means, respectively. The main body of the bassinet is received within a space defined by the two longitudinal rods and the two lateral rods of the playpen. The main body includes two longitudinal sides parallel to each other, two lateral sides parallel to each other and perpendicular to the two longitudinal dies and a bottom. The two suspension sleeves are connected to the two longitudinal sides of the main body so as to extend longitudinally, respectively. The two extension portions are connected to the two lateral sides of the main body so as to extend therefrom, respectively, and provided with second connecting means engageable with the first connecting means of the playpen, respectively. The two extension portions extend around the two lateral rods of the playpen, respectively, so as to be fixedly connected to the two lateral outer fabric sides of the peripheral surface of the playpen, respectively, through engagement between the first and second connecting means. The two supporting rods pass through the two suspension sleeves, respectively, so that two hollow end portions of each of the two supporting rods are protruded outside of the sleeve. Each of the coupling members has a horizontally extending first portion and a vertically extending second portion integrally formed with and extending downwards from an end of the first portion. The first portion is to be inserted into the hollow end portion of the supporting rod. The second portion has a radially inwardly recessed groove vertically extending upwards from a bottom thereof. The second portion is adapted to be inserted into the vertical hole of the corner block with the vertically extending groove engaging the vertically extending rib so that each supporting rod is supported on two corner blocks.
Preferably, the vertically extending rib and the vertically extending groove are located such that the vertically extending rib engages the vertically extending groove in a plane formed by the first and second portions of the coupling member when the second portion of the coupling member is inserted into the vertical hole of the corner block.
Preferably, the vertically extending groove is provided in the second portion of the coupling member on the same side as the first portion, and the second portion of the coupling member further comprises an resilient portion connected to the bottom of the second portion on an opposite side to the first portion and extending upwards from the bottom of the second portion in parallel with the second portion. The resilient portion is provided at a top thereof with a pressing portion obliquely extending to a level higher than that of the first portion so that pressing the pressing portion of the resilient portion causes the resilient portion to move towards the second portion of the coupling member, thereby facilitating the removal of the coupling member from the vertical hole.
Preferably, the corner blocks are formed from plastic or metal material, the supporting rods are formed from metal material such as iron and the coupling members are formed from plastic material.
The above and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, discloses a preferred embodiment of the present invention.